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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who is worth about $14 billion, has gone paperless, and truly believes that the only difference between Microsoft and Apple in the mobile market is that the  iPhone  maker made one right decision--choosing ARM chips for its smartphone, rather than Intel's battery-hogging alternatives. That's about all you're going to learn about the man in  a sprawling seven-page profile from Businessweek . True to his desire to control how Microsoft is perceived by consumers, Ballmer let little go in the profile, and instead tried to keep positive about his company's prospects in 2012, saying the tech giant will have "a reset moment" this year. Related stories Ballmer highlights Windows Phone, Windows 8, Xbox Kinect (video) Ballmer reveals first LTE Windows Phone on AT&T (live blog) Microsoft: Kinect coming to Windows February 1 For Ballmer, 2012 could prove to be an important turning point in his career. This year will be the one whe...

Betting heavily on Microsoft to revive its fortunes, Nokia is in a position to sell as many as 37 million Windows Phone handsets this year and 64 million in 2013, says a Morgan Stanley report cited by  AllThingsD . Of course, much of that forecast depends on just how hard Microsoft will work to promote its partnership with Nokia. The two companies already reportedly plan to  spend $20 million  to market their new lineup. Nokia has been pushing its Lumia phones, with the  710 now available  through T-Mobile, the  800 selling in Europe , and the  LTE-compliant 900  sailing to the U.S., possibly  as soon as March . With AT&T set to carry the 900, Nokia is also counting on the folks at Big Red to lure in U.S. customers. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, and AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega took the stage together at  CES  on Monday to introduce and tease the 900 for the crowd. Already putting in a good word...

Three Musketeers: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, and AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega proudly show off the Nokia Lumia 900 at CES 2012. 2012 may mark Microsoft's  last major CES keynote and presence , but with two successful Windows Phone announcements, it's going out with a bang.  CNET named both the  HTC Titan II  and the  Nokia Lumia 900  finalists for the  Best of CES award  in the smartphone category, both supporting 4G LTE. Out of four total candidates, the Lumia 900 took the prize. Much has changed in a year. Last  CES , the newly minted Windows Phone operating system had just launched, completely overhauling the convoluted, bloated Windows Mobile operating system that proved incapable of surviving in a post-iPhone world. Although the community of mobile press journalists widely appreciated Windows Phone's simple, straightforward interface and unique design, the first wave of hardware mostly underwhelmed. Soft...

LAS VEGAS--Microsoft has sung its  CES  swan song. The company announced plans last month  to walk away from the Consumer Electronics Show  after a nearly two-decade involvement with the confab and the organization behind it. That made tonight's keynote address from Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer the beginning of the end. Microsoft  didn't make any major announcements  (other than the fact that Kinect is  coming to Windows on February 1 ). But then, the company has said the timing of the annual confab doesn't generally align with its product news milestones, and that's the key reason it's bailing on the show. Microsoft talked up Windows Phone (its mobile phone operating system that's been getting some praise from the tech press), gave a look at some of the upcoming trim ultrabook computers running  Windows 7 , demoed some previously disclosed features of Windows 8 (which should debut toward the end of 2012), and touted its tile-based Me...